Grateful Padawan

A whistleblower's disclosure details how DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data A whistleblower tells Congress and NPR that DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data and hid its tracks. "None of that ... information should ever leave the agency," said a former NLRB official.

“…members of the DOGE team asked that their activities not be logged on the system and then appeared to try to cover their tracks behind them, turning off monitoring tools and manually deleting records of their access…”

What kind of shady s**t is going on here??

www.npr.org/2025/04/15/n...

April 15, 2025 A large crowd of protesters calling for the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man the Trump administration sent to a notorious terrorist prison in El Salvador, milled around the courthouse ...

April 15, 2025

“Now I’ve got that feeling once again
I can’t explain, you would not understand.
This is not how I am”

Call Congress for our libraries. Show up for our libraries. American library association.

ALA is deeply concerned by reports that IMLS is sending notices to libraries claiming to cancel grants that are required by law. This harmful action will disrupt libraries' ability to serve their communities.
Tell Congress to protect library funding: bit.ly/CallCongressForLibraries
#ForOurLibraries

Today's Headlines

Groups across the country have received letters notifying them that their grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities have been canceled, raising alarms about serious harm to museums, historical sites, and a wide range of community projects.

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/23/u...

February 23, 2025 Something is shifting,” scholar of authoritarianism Timothy Snyder posted on Bluesky yesterday.

February 23, 2025

Trump takes swipe at Zelensky's leadership "Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a country left," US President Donald Trump says in a post on Truth Social. Labelling Zelensky "a dictator", Trump writes: "I love Ukraine, but Zelensky has done a terrible job, his country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died." Trump says in the meantime, the US is "successfully negotiating an end to the war with Russia". For context: Zelensky's presidential term expired last May, however Ukraine has been under martial law since the Russian invasion in February 2022, which means presidential elections are suspended.

Trump launches fresh attack on Zelensky, calling him a "dictator" as US row with Ukraine deepens - follow live

While Trump appoints 13 billionaires to his cabinet and Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg see their wealth increase by $217 billion since the election, 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, 25% of seniors live on $15g or less and millions cannot afford rent.

SAY NO TO OLIGARCHY.

This darkness got to give.

US-Russia talks under way in Riyadh The talks between the Russian and US delegations in Saudi Arabia have begun. The American side has emphasised that today's meeting is not about starting negotiations, but to work out if Russia is "serious" about to end the Ukraine war. Russia says its priority is to begin normalising relations with the US. It's not clear how much of this meeting will take place behind closed doors - but we'll bring you the key lines as we get them.

The US and Russia are holding face-to-face talks on the war in Ukraine – follow the latest

Just remember, the time between an apparent decisive victory (the destruction of the first Death Star) & an actual decisive victory (the destruction of the second Death Star) was 4 years, during which most of the time life sucked for everyone because the Empire was striking back all over the place.

Why A.I. Isn’t Going to Make Art To create a novel or a painting, an artist makes choices that are fundamentally alien to artificial intelligence.

To create a novel or a painting, an artist makes choices that are fundamentally alien to artificial intelligence.

February 17, 2025 Today is Presidents Day, a somewhat vague holiday placed in 1968 on the third Monday in February, near the date of George Washington’s birthday on February 22, 1732, but also traditionally including A...

February 17, 2025

Trey Anastasio Talks Phish’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Nomination (and Why He’s Not Voting for His Own Band) Anastasio, a first-time nominee in Phish’s 41st year as a band, discusses what the honor means to him, Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show, and how MJ Lenderman has ruined his life.

Trey Anastasio Talks Phish’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Nomination (and Why He’s Not Voting for His Own Band)

www.gq.com/story/trey-a...

#Entertainment #Music #Culture #Hollywood #Celebrities #TreyAnastasio #Phish #RockandRollHallofFame

How to Be a Stoic Born nearly two thousand years before Darwin and Freud, Epictetus seems to have anticipated a way out of their prisons.

For the Stoic philosopher Epictetus, the only thing we can totally control, and therefore the only thing we should ever worry about, is our own judgment about what is good.

February 16, 2025 The sixty-first Munich Security Conference, the world’s leading forum for talking about international security policy, took place from February 14 to February 16 this year.

February 16, 2025

The right time to let go is always.

Deep thoughts. Jack Handy.

SNL 50 is the best event of 2025. It’s not even close.

“We are our own dragons as well as our own heroes, and we have to rescue ourselves from ourselves.”
– Still Life With Woodpecker

"The US administration are doing this above Zelensky's head... The b******s are gonna do this."

Nicholas Watt reports shock from senior UK defence figures, after Donald Trump said he and Vladimir Putin would begin talks to end the war in Ukraine "immediately".

#Newsnight

"They're celebrating in the Kremlin right now, they're popping Champagne."

Putin critic and financier, Bill Browder, says President Trump's announcement about the war in Ukraine is his 'worst nightmare' come true.

#Newsnight

USAID Lifesaving Aid Remains Halted Despite Rubio’s Promise A new directive puts further exemptions on hold. Aid workers also say the U.S. government has made it impossible to pay partners around the world.

NEW: Despite Musk and Rubio’s statements, life-saving programs with USAID funds are NOT restarting. A funds transfer system is frozen. And a USAID official sent out an internal email obtained by @nytimes.com telling employees to halt applications to restart: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/u...

Moderated?

February 8, 2025 Yesterday the National Institutes of Health under the Trump administration announced a new policy that will dramatically change the way the United States funds medical research.

February 8, 2025

Vought is giving big banks and giant corporations the green light to scam families.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has returned over $21 billion to families cheated by Wall Street. Republicans have failed to gut it in Congress and in the courts. They will fail again.

Musk Team’s Treasury Access Raises Security Fears, Despite Judge’s Ordered Halt A judge ruled Saturday that the activities of Elon Musk’s government cost-cutting effort risk “the disclosure of sensitive and confidential information” and render them “more vulnerable than before to...

“...'the most consequential security breach' in American history."

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/08/u...

February 3, 2025 I’m going to start tonight by stating the obvious: the Republicans control both chambers of Congress: the House of Representatives and the Senate.

February 3, 2025